Mircea Eliade's Vision for a New Humanism

232 Pages·1993·1.92 MB·English

by  David Cave

Mircea Eliade's Vision for a New Humanism
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Mircea Eliade's
Vision for a
New Humanism
DAVID CAVE
New York Oxford
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1993
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York Toronto
Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi
Kuala Lumpur Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo
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and associated companies in
Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1993 by David Cave
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
200 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cave, David.
Mircea Eliade's vision for a new humanism / David Cave.
p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-507434-3
1. Eliade, Mircea, 1907-
2. Humanism—20th century,
3. Religion.
4. Man. I. Title.
BL43.E4C38 1993
291'.092-—dc20
91-39810
135798642
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
To Peggy,
faithful companion, wonderful friend,
and loving wife
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PREFACE
I first became acquainted with Eliade through his autobiography. What
amazed me was how driven he was in his need to create, which for him meant
to write from the enormous range of his readings and his multiform experi-
ences. Eliade wrote broadly. He had an obsessive need to create an oeuvre.
From the journalistic and apologetic to the literary and the scholarly, Eliade
wrote in all genres for all audiences.
Yet behind this body of work an interpretive schema and visionary impulse
cohered, stabilized, and directed his life. Eliade interpreted his life, as he
would all human life, as being mythological in structure. Humans undergo
repeated initiations in the pursuit of meaning. This mythological thrust to
human life interested me. But what interested me more was the nature of the
vision and impulse that inspired and drove him as a humanist. This study is a
prolegomenon to the visionary impulse behind Eliade's prolix life. It also
looks at how Eliade foresaw this impulse for culture at large, the audience to
whom Eliade ultimately directed his writings.
In helping me refine and sober my initial readings of Eliade and initiate me
into the complexities and controversies surrounding him, I am grateful to a
number of people. Now at Baylor University, John Jonsson encouraged me to
consider researching the thought of Eliade. Glen Stassen and E. Glenn Hin-
son, at Southern Seminary, commented on the initial drafts of each chapter
and on the final manuscript. At the University of Chicago, Jerald Brauer,
Joseph Kitagawa, Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, and Paul Wheatley provided
helpful perspectives on the life and thought of Eliade. The late Ioan Culianu
confirmed my research direction at a time when I needed it, read the entire
manuscript, and encouraged its publication. I am grateful for what he did and
am grieved that such an eminent scholar and warm human being should have
been so tragically taken from us.
Special thanks goes to Lawrence Sullivan at Harvard University. From
when he first instructed me when I was a visiting student at the University of
Chicago to when he read the entire text, Sullivan's comments were indispens-
able for giving me and others confidence in the manuscript.
viii Preface
At Indiana University, Matei Calinescu taught me how to appreciate and
read Eliade's fantastic literature. He also alerted me to upcoming and existing
studies on Eliade.
Mac Linscott Ricketts, at Louisburg College, carefully read and edited the
entire manuscript. He offered helpful suggestions and criticisms. When I
wrote to him for information on Eliade's Romanian years, he promptly re-
sponded with valuable material.
To Ed Linenthal at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, I owe a word of
thanks. He urged me to follow through with my revisions and affirmed my
labors when I was feeling guilty for giving too much attention to the book at
the expense of other obligations. Also at Oshkosh, I am grateful to Betty
Dickinson for helping me in the mechanics of computer operation and in the
use of new software. Indeed, the entire Religious Studies department at
Oshkosh was a timely support group during the year I taught there and went
through the lonely ordeal of the work of writing and revising.
Lastly, but always firstly and faithfully, I am grateful to my wife, Peggy.
She has put up with many sacrifices, always, though, with devoted patience
and understanding. And to Jonathan, our two-year-old, I am also grateful. His
presence reminds me of what is finally most important.
Fort Mitchell, Ky. D.C.
April 1992
CONTENTS
1 Introduction, 3
Biography of Eliade, 6
Nature of This Book, 12
2 The New Humanism as a Hermeneutics of a "Participatory
Morphology" and as a Spiritual Vision, 14
A Hermeneutics of a "Participatory Morphology," 14
The New Humanism as a Spiritual Vision, 25
3 The Nature of the Human Condition: Humans as Symbolic, 32
The Character of Symbolic Existence, 33
The New Humanism as Dialectical and Incarnational, 35
As a Cosmic Spirituality, 41
The New Humanism and the Relation to the Whole, 54
4 The Nature of the Human Condition: The Human as Mythic
and as Homo Religiosus, 65
Humans as Mythic, 66
Humans Make and Live in Myth, 67
The New Humanism as Transhistorical, 72
The New Humanism Patterned After Exemplary Models, 81
The New Humanism Patterned After Communitarian Models, 90
The Human Being as Homo Religiosus, 92
5 The Goals of the New Humanism, 103
Humans as Authentic, 104
Humans as Free, 119
Humans as Cultural, 127
Humans at the Center, 140